Stolen Fire
by blufirefly
Summary: About Ruen, an 11 year old kid in the fire nation. Sorry its not a good summaryplease R&R!


Chapter 1

Ruen darted up a side alley, glancing over her shoulder. She seemed to have shaken the soldiers, but you could never be too sure…

She came out on another busy street, and turned uphill, heading to the inn. Over the doorway hung a rickety sign, which read, "Rusty Bucket Tavern", --that is if she _could_ read. Ruen had grown up on the streets of the firenation capital, and never really had much of an education- except in thieving and pocket picking of course.

Ruen shoved the tavern doors open and stepped inside. The air was thick and smokey, and it was unusually crowded for this time of day, she noticed. Unconcerned, she pushed her way through until she reached the bar, where she found Riko pouring drinks and grumbling something about foul weather and waterbenders.

"Hey Riko– "

The man looked up. He looked aobut middle aged; typical firenation looks; with a large belly and a busy graying beard.

"Oh, hello Ruen. Here, make yourself useful." He handed her a large platter, and set about eight beer glasses on it. "Get anything good today?" he asked as he poured his finest beer into them.

"Nah, not much…but I did get a great nab off some important looking soldier—got his whole bag- " She had actually also robbed a house, and had made off with tons of valuable stuff, but of course she'd already sold it all and had stashed the money away. She'd learned long ago to cover her back and only give to the gang's pool what was expected. It was actually a pretty good system in her opinion – at least she got fed.

"Good!" Riko cut in, "now be quick and take these to that far corner table." He handed her a large jug also.

"Alright, but say, who's it for?" she couldn't help asking, precariously balancing the tray while holding the jug with the other hand.

"Some very important people." He replied shortly, then turned to serve another customer.

"Probably a whole nest of fire nation soldiers with my luck," she muttered to herself as she made her way across the room.

Someone bumped into her, nearly sending the drinks to the floor, and she elbowed back, annoyed.

"Hey watch it kid!" as someone shoved past.

Finally, she made it to the table. _Yep, I knew it.._ Two fire nation soldiers sat there. One looked very high ranked, and they were studying some kind of map on the table. He looked up when she put the tray and jug down, and Ruen's stomach sank.

"YOU!"

Ruen quickly shoved the entire tray of drinks across the table and into his lap…then ran.

"Stop that thief!" (Of course that didn't do much good – being in the thief capitol of the city.)

Ruen tripped over someone's foot and fell. She rolled under a table and scrambled to her feet, only to find herself being grabbed by the shirt and yanked up.

"Give it to me NOW," the soldier demanded threateningly.

"Okay! Alright, just cool it!" She glared up at him. '_That's odd…a fire nation soldier with white hair…' _Ruen took her time getting the bag, and watched for a chance to escape, but he didn't give her one.

Finally, she reluctantly produced it and handed it over.

"_Thank _you. And be more careful what you steal! This is very importanit! You might have completely destroyed the entire tactical missile defenserary sector C-67! (Ray loves using big words.)

"Jeez…sorry mister." Ruen tried to look sympathetic.

Ray sighed, exasperated. "The stuff I have to deal with," he muttered under his breath.

Just then, a beer glass came out of nowhere and hit Ray in the head.

"Tiiiiimm……." As he fell to the floor

Tim, presumably the one who had just thrown the glass, lurched drunkenly (that's putting it lightly) over to where Ruen was standing.

"Why, HeellLLLOOoo…." The second soldier said, draping an arm around her shoulder. He had obviously drank too much, and was grinning weirdly. Suddenly he turned very serious. "THIS, is veeeerrrrrry interrresting," he said, pointing to the man on the floor who he had just knocked out. "My frrriend….seems to have gotten drunk and…quite passed out. Then he turned to Ruen, "Will YOU be my friend?" (making drunk bambi eyes at her)

"Umm…maybe some other time." Ruen stepped away carefully. He swayed unsteadily, then recovered and said,

"Fine then. Ray and me will take our business some-placesselse." He bent down over Ray on the floor. "Rayyy…wake uUp."

"Mm…huh?" Ray grunted and squinted up at him. "What's that?"

"WE, my tipsy friend, are Leaving." Time said adamantly, grasping Ray's hand and heaving him up.

"Did someone hit my head?" Ray asked, rubbing a huge lump on his forehead, a confused look on his face.

"Must've hit it when you fell…" Time guided his friend towards the door.

"…I fell?" Ray still looked dazed. Then he suddenly grabbed Tim on the shoulder, "Wait- the map!"

Tim looked confused for a moment, then his face went suddenly white, "The map—" he echoed blankly.

They both turned and stumbled back towards their table.

"Noo…" Ray groaned. It was gone. Not a trace – He turned around , dazed. Tim was sitting on a chair with his head in his hands, moaning, "The map the map." It was hard to tell if the moaning was from drinking too much—or losing government property.

"—Zhao's going to kill us…" Ray glanced around, frantically looking for anything to give away who had taken it. Then he remembered the kid who'd stolen his bag—'_NO' …_ He searched himself—yep it was gone too.


End file.
